


Paint me your colours

by boxofwonder



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Ann has proficiency five painting nails, F/M, Hopelessly pining Ryuji, Nail polish!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 11:37:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12011922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boxofwonder/pseuds/boxofwonder
Summary: Ryuji was convinced the colour red had been made to adorn Ann.





	Paint me your colours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [talonyth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/talonyth/gifts).



> It's 3 a.m. and insomnia punched me in the gut, so when my late night nailpolish-fume induced thoughts collided with a pining song from my spotify discover weekly playlist, I realised I needed this.
> 
> Obviously dedicated to my bff who played the entire (!!) game for me. Thanks for dragging me into this hell, my sunshine.

“You got it all over your cuticles! Gross!”

Ryuji was about to yank his hands away, but Ann’s iron grip was determined. So he grumbled and held still as Ann assessed the mess he had made of his nails.

“I thought red was cool,” he said, hoping she didn’t realise nail polish reminded him of middle school and that one time Ann had painted his nails a bright red, so they would match. He had been a little addicted ever since. The scent of it felt like home. And red _was_ a rad colour. Heh! Red, rad.

“It is cool,” Ann confirmed enthusiastically. Of course she did. It was _hers._ Ryuji was convinced the colour red had been made to adorn Ann. “But we’ll have to fix this!”

Her fingers slipped from his wrists, down to his ruined nails. He bit his lip and stopped himself in the same breath. He couldn't be suspicious!

When had it become like this anyways? One second Ann had been a friend, and the next, his heart had betrayed him and let him notice for the first time how beautiful she was. It was like snapping out of an optical illusion, into a harsh reality where he could barely catch coherent thought around her. “Then get to work.”

She pouted at him, but didn’t whack him. Heh.

“Hang on. I’ll get some supplies.” She danced away, returning with cotton pads, q-tips and toothpicks and a bottle of remover, sinking back to the ground across from him. “Put your fingers on my knee.”

When he hesitated, she rolled her eyes. “I don’t have cooties, Ryuji! I’ll reach them better that way.”

So he did, and kept his eyes carefully trained on the part of her hair as Ann bent down and dabbed at his nail with the solution, rubbing with force and going through pad after pad, before she switched to q-tips, and finally the toothpicks. “Other hand,” she breathed.

He complied, heart in his throat. The procedure repeated.

His thumbs, too. The red had not gone _entirely_ , but for the most part. It was impressive. He wriggled his fingers. “Thanks! Now I won't get laughed it for being so bad at this!”

Ann clicked her tongue, and Ryuji’s heart skipped a beat when she rolled a bottle of red polish between her palms. Where'd she gotten that from? “I think the biggest problem was that your polish was old and gooey. It’s _impossible_ to work with it, especially if you have little experience. Here, give me your hand again.”

He hesitated, and she looked up at him from beneath her lashes. “I thought you wanted this?”

He surrendered his hand again, and it was harder to breathe this time. Ryuji didn’t even try blaming it on the remover or polish fumes. It was all her.

“See how fresh and nice this polish is? Look how smooth I can paint it on.” And he watched, entranced, as she dipped the brush into the glossy polish and spread it on his nail perfectly, with three concentrated, controlled swipes. The colour was rich and even, and breathtaking, and Ann’s tongue peeked from her lips in concentration.

Nail after nail she painted, her tights warm beneath the pads of his fingers. “Thank you,” he breathed, because Ryuji feared if he did not say anything of the like, he would blurt things he wasn’t ready for anyone to know. Well, aside from Akira, who had smelled it against the wind. But he didn’t count! He’d take this secret to the grave if Ryuji needed him to.

Which maybe he would have to.

Ann and him - they’d just found each other again, got used to each other again. Being friends was pretty damn cool. He didn’t need to mess that up.

“Your thumb,” Ann muttered, lost in her task, and he shifted his hand, careful not to disturb the smooth red on his other fingers. “The trick is not to fill it entirely,” she said, smiling. “It makes it look a bit more slim and elegant! But you can’t leave too much space left and right, or it’ll look totally weird!  And besides, I think any nails look awesome with polish!”

Hers especially.

Gods, Ryuji had to stop being such a pathetic mess.

“Yeah, I get it,” he said, congratulating himself on such an accomplishment when she was bent towards him close enough to smell the strawberry shampoo in her hair. Red, red, red.

“Other hand, Ryuji.”

So he switched, and watched again. She made it look so easy. It was a matter of a better polish, sure, he could see that. But Ann also had practice on her side, and pulled this off so without breaking a sweat, lookin’ real elegant while she was at it. It was really impressive.

He wriggled his other hand through the air.

“Don’t disturb my concentration,” Ann said without looking up. “Thumb.” And he gave her that, already missing the feeling of her attention, the brushes of her skin against his. She finished quick, giving him a dazzling smile as she screwed back the cap. “There! All done! Show me again!”

So he obediently presented his hands, fingers spread. It looked real damn nice. No comparison to the mess he’d made before.

“Perfect!” Ann cooed, and tossed her hair behind her shoulder with a playful glint in her eyes. “Of course!”

Ryuji smiled down at his nails, wriggling his fingers in the air again. “Yeah,” he said, without thinking. Of course it was perfect after she had tried her hand on it.

“What’s gotten into you?!” Ann cried, pointing one finger at him. “Why did you just agree like that?!”

“Huh?!” Ryuji felt his brows furrow, and his posture puff up. “So what! Why are you gettin’ on my case like that?! S’just awesome, what’s so bad about that?!”

Ann opened her mouth and closed it again, and looked away, but with so much dedication her whole body twisted away from him, too. Before her hair fell before her face, Ryuji had almost, almost been certain he had seen a light flush to her cheeks.

Red, the colour made to adorn her.

“Don’t say weird stuff,” she mumbled, twirling a strand of hair around her fingers. But she didn’t actually sound mad.

  
  


It was bad.

This was bad.

He still thought about that. The tone of her voice. The colour on her cheeks. Flustered Ann was terribly cute, and Ryuji had his hands on his pillow, next to his head. The scent of the nail polish still clung to them, reaching him from time to time as he lay in the dark, curled up and unable to fall asleep.

And it made him recall everything else.

The scent of her shampoo, and the warmth of her skin through the fabric of her tights. Somewhere along the line, Ryuji had fallen in love with his most annoying friend, and everything that used to annoy him about her now made his heart seize, and all he could do was curl up and let idiotic longing wash through him.

Somewhere along the line, he’d fallen for a girl he could never have, and every time they argued, he wanted to stop her with his hands on her shoulder, and tell her she was truly incredible.

‘Cause he wasn’t sure she realised that’s what he thought of her.

And how sad was that?!

_Maybe someday_ , he thought, thrusting his hands under his pillow and squeezing his eyes shut. He was gonna _sleep,_ dammit!

Maybe someday he’d tell her everything. And until then, he’d be happy wearing _her_ colour, carrying it with him. It really looked gorgeous, no matter how long the damn stuff had taken to dry. Totally worth it.

And maybe she’d do his nails again.

Polish chipped fast, didn’t it?

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not lying awake because every fibre of my being is busy loving Ann but I might as well be!!!
> 
> She's so strong and beautiful and after everything she's gone through, she stayed kind and is trying her best. I fuckin' love Ann so much. I hope I'll fall asleep thinking of her smile. (Exactly like Ryuji will!!!)


End file.
